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Samsung Galaxy Note Edge review: The future of mobile is here

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When it comes to smartphones, convenience is paramount. The whole existence of the category is centered around doing things quickly and easily, while you’re on the go. So anything that adds to that — anything that cuts down the number of steps in performing a task — is a win.

That’s why I’m a huge fan of the Galaxy Note Edge. When Samsung first unveiled the phone, it turned a lot of heads. The sleek edge panel, which adds a curved vertical screen along one side, was something new and unique. But at the time it wasn’t clear if it was really practical, or just flash.

Turns out it’s both. The edge panel does make some everyday tasks easier, although it requires you to get used to a different way of doing things. And yeah, it also looks pretty hot.

Designing on a curve

Design-wise, the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note Edge is basically a Galaxy Note 4 (complete with stylus), just with an 160-line edge panel stuck on one side. Except there's nothing "just" about it — the panel is what makes the Edge special. And it charges a premium for it: AT&T, for example, prices the Edge at $399 with a contract, or $100 more than the Note. Other carriers offer similar top-tier pricing.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Review

Taking Smartphones to the Edge

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is one of the most unusual -- and potentially revolutionary -- smartphones out there. The eye-catching edge panel is a joy to use, but it also comes at a premium.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Quick Access to Apps

The most useful thing the edge panel does is provide a space for your most-used apps.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Edge Panels

You can scroll through various edge panels, including ones for news headlines, Twitter topics and fitness data from the S Health app.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Free Up Home Screen Space

You may be tempted to empty your home screen of icons when you've got all your essential apps in the edge panel.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Camera UI

The edge panel makes is put to good use in the camera app, getting all the "chrome" out of the image an on the panel.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Quick Tools

Slide down on the edge panel to see some quick tools, including a ruler.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Customized Panels

You can customize which panels you see, and what's on them.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Right Side

The edge panels necessitates a relocation of the power button.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Bottom View

On the bottom you'll find the stylus and the microUSB port.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Left Side

The left side of the phone has the volume rocker buttons.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Top View

The power button and headphone jack are on top.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

'Leather' Back

The leather-textured back of the Edge is really plastic, but it's still kind of classy.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Edge vs. Note

The Galaxy Note Edge has virtually all the same features as the Galaxy Note 4, including a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, a quad-core processor and fingerprint sensor.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

S Pen

The Note Edge also includes the S Pen stylus, along with all the apps and software that go with it.

Top Camera

The Galaxy Note Edge has the same camera as the Note 4, a 16-megapixel imager with optical image stabilization.

Image: Elizabeth Pierson/Mashable

Overall, what I said about the Note 4's solid design applies to the Note Edge, with a few caveats. Holding the Edge is an inherently asymmetrical experience. You're very aware of the edge panel when you're holding it. That doesn't mean it's distracting (in fact, it goes dormant when you're immersed in an app), but the panel does shift the "center of gravity" of your user experience, if that's a thing.

The panel also necessitates a relocation of the Note's power button from the right side to the top. Not a big deal, but there it is.

The edge panel aside, the Note Edge is physically different from the Note 4 in subtle ways. It's actually slightly thinner (0.327 inch instead of 0.335 inch thick) and lighter (6.14 ounces to 6.21 ounces), which is a surprise. And for those hoping to use it with the Samsung Gear VR, you can forget it — the physical differences are enough to render the Edge incompatible.

The first and best ability of the edge panel is its quick access to frequently used apps. Instead of tapping the Android app switcher, then scrolling through whatever’s running, you just swipe the panel, then and tap one of the tiny icons. (You can, of course, customize which apps appear on the panel.)

Yes, you're right: that’s technically the same number of steps as before, but the experience is superior for a few reasons: First, the edge panel responds faster than the app switcher. Second, you can fill it with the apps you use most often — usually the ones you're switching to anyway.

Finally — and this is hard to quantify — the motion just feels more natural. That's probably due to the fact that only your thumb need be involved with the motion, helped by Samsung's nice touch with the animation: when you launch an app from the edge panel, it emerges from the side.

Panel dreams

Having your go-to apps always present on the panel presents an opportunity for your home-screen wallpaper. It was fun to install an animated Doctor Who wallpaper, then delete every icon and widget from my home screen. Of course, my primary apps are still on the edge, so I don't lose the quick access.

Samsung makes good use of the panel in specific apps. The camera, for example, moves all the buttons to the edge, leaving the main screen — which is a 2,560 x 1,440 Quad HD display, by the way — completely free to show just what you’re aiming at.

The Edge panel isn’t just a one-trick pony. You can swipe through various panel widgets, including Yahoo news headlines and trending Twitter topics. Tap on a headline or Twitter term and it’ll launch the respective app. You can customize these, of course, though the selection is fairly limited right now. At least some — such as the music player — can be used with multiple apps.

Samsung has released an SDK for the edge panel, so developers can create widgets for their own apps. I can imagine a lot of great possibilities — including a news scroll for media apps, sliders for photo-editing programs and toolbars for productivity tools like Evernote — but whether or not they ever get made is an open question.

Samsung also got creative with a couple of the built-in apps. The Night Clock is great; if you charge your phone by your bedside (and who doesn’t?), the phone can show the time along the edge, facing you as you sleep. Because it’s an AMOLED screen, only the pixels being lit are active, consuming minimal power.

There are also a few built-in edge tools, including a stopwatch, voice memos and a 4-inch ruler. Yes, a ruler. On the edge. Genius, right? Right?

Quick tools for the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, including a clever ruler, are a swipe away.

Image: Mashable, Elizabeth Pierson

Okay, the ruler is more showy than useful, but there’s nothing wrong with a little flash. And on that score, the Galaxy Note Edge has lots to spare. The curved edge panel is nothing if not futuristic, and it's guaranteed to turn heads. This is definitely a phone you want to avoid if you hate talking to people.

As I mentioned, the Note Edge has virtually all the specs and features of the Note 4, including that ultra-high-res display, the improved S Pen experience, Android 4.4 "KitKat," the 2.7GHz quad-core processor with 3GB of RAM, the fingerprint sensor built into the home button, the fast charging and the excellent 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS). It's definitely a flagship.

One important difference between the Note and Edge, though, is the battery. The Edge's is a bit smaller at 3,000mAh (milliamp-hours) instead of 3,220. That's still pretty robust, but I also found the Edge inherently encourages more power drain — at least at first. You want to play with the Edge, show it off, and pair it with live wallpaper. As such, I was often down to fumes far earlier than I expected, and well short of a full day.

The Edge of the future

The Galaxy Note Edge takes a big risk. Concept phone designs get a lot of attention, but few are ever made and fewer still are successful. If they're too unusual, they're condemned to be historical oddities, eventually cast to the dustbin of mobile history.

The Edge, however, deftly toes the line between our expectations of smartphones and forward-looking design. It's unusual, yes, but it doesn't require a total rethink of how you use a smartphone. And the benefits are very real.

The edge panel itself is a well-thought-out piece of technology. It's not buggy in the slightest, and it was an expert at responding to my finger taps — it hardly ever confused a edge tap with one on the main screen, and there were virtually no "false positives" from my palm, even though it appears to rest dangerously close to the panel as you hold it.

Certainly, the Note Edge won't force a wholesale rethink of smartphone design. But I could see it becoming the defining feature of a sub-brand of Galaxy phones. Given its size and price premium, it should be considered Samsung's dreadnought class.

If anything is holding back the Edge it’s the exorbitant cost, but in this case, you get what you pay for. The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge levels up your smartphone experience in a way other phones simply aren’t equipped to. As a bonus, it makes you feel pretty baller.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

The Good

Useful edge panel • Eye-catching design • Outstanding camera

The Bad

Expensive

The Bottom Line

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge feels like the future. Its flagship specs and ostentatiously useful edge panel make it one of the best smartphones you can buy… as long as you've got the cash.

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